WOMAN  IN  THE 
UNITED  STATES 


BARON 
STOtJRNELLES  DE  CONSTANT 


I  U,N  V,ER,S  TY  °f  CAL  FORNIA   SAN  DIEGO 


31822017184607 


Central  University  Library 

University  of  California,  San  Diego 
Please  Note:  This  item  is  subject  to  recall. 

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WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


I: 


WOMAN    IN   THE 
UNITED    STATES 

BY 

BARON  D'ESTOURNELLES  DE  CONSTANT 


TRANSLATED  FROM  THE  FRENCH  BY 

ESTELLE    C.   PORTER 

WITH     A     FOREWORD     BY 

DAVID  STARR  JORDAN 


A.  M.  ROBERTSON 

STOCKTON   STREET   AT   UNION    SQUARE 

SAN   FRANCISCO,  CALIFORNIA 

MCMXII 


COPYRIGHT,  1912 

BY 
A.  M.  ROBERTSON 


ress 
San  7ra*cUco 


NOTE  BY  THE  TRANSLATOR 

This  essay  originally  appeared  in  La  Revue,  Paris, 
December  15,  1911,  under  the  title  of  "La  Femme 
aux  Etats-Unis  par  D'  Estournelles  de  Constant. ' ' 

The  author  has  graciously  authorized  its  translation 
by  one  of  the  members  of  the  "French  Club"  at 
Stanford,  before  which  Club  he  gave  one  of  his  most 
charming  talks. 

E.  C.  P. 
Stanford  University,  May  10,  1912. 


PARIS,  le  Fevrier,  1912. 


Cher  President  et  ami 

Bien  entendu,  j'autorise  avec  grand  plahir  la  publi- 
cation de  la  traduction  que  Mademoiselle  Estelle  Porter 
a  bien  voulu  faire  de  mon  article  sur  les  Femmes  aux 
Etats  Unis.  Veuillez  la  remercier  pour  moi, 

Votre  devoue, 


Monsieur  le  President  Starr  Jordan, 
Stanford  University. 


FOREWORD 

BY 

DAVID  STARR  JORDAN 


FOREWORD 

HE  author  of  this  frank  and 
charming  essay  on  American 
women  is  one  of  the  most  con- 
spicuous and  interesting  per- 
sonalities in  the  Republic  of  France.  Paul 
D'  Estournelles  de  Constant,  hereditary 
baron  under  the  old  regime,  democratic 
senator  from  Sarthe  under  the  new,  advo- 
cate and  jurist,  athlete,  automobilist,  essay- 
ist, artist,  orator,  officer  of  the  Legion  of 
Honor,  member  of  the  two  Hague  Confer- 
ences, member  of  the  International  Court 
at  the  Hague,  and  President  of  the  Society 
for  International  Conciliation,  he  has 

11 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

touched  life  happily  at  many  points.  He 
was  born  in  1852  near  La  Fleche,  in  west- 
ern France,  at  the  Castle  of  Creans,  a 
stronghold  of  the  eleventh  century,  on  the 
banks  of  the  Loire.  A  large  part  of  the 
old  castle  stands,  with  its  own  moat,  postern 
gate  and  donjon  towers.  The  baron  still 
entertains  his  friends  in  the  old  chateau 
most  comfortably,  but  the  demands  of  his 
library  have  led  him  to  build  a  modern 
house  in  the  neighboring  garden.  The 
ancestry  of  the  D'Estournelles  lies  among 
the  French  nobility,  the  suffix  * '  de  Con- 
stant" being  a  reminiscence  of  some 
forefather's  bold  deeds  on  the  walls  of 
Constantinople.  The  baron  was  educated 
for  the  bar  at  the  Lycee  St.  Louis  le  Grand, 
in  Paris.  Madame  D'Estournelles  was  an 
American  lady,  once  Miss  Sedgwick,  of 
Syracuse.  A  son,  Arnaud  D'Estournelles 

12 


FOREWORD 

de  Constant  has  already  made  a  worthy 
record  as  a  geologist. 

The  Baron  early  entered  the  diplomatic 
service,  having  been  at  London,  Charge 
d' Affaires  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary. 
Later  he  became  deputy  and  since  1904, 
senator  from  his  native  district  of  Sarthe, 
in  the  old  province  of  Maine.  From  the 
first,  Baron  D' Estournelles  de  Constant  has 
been  very  active  in  the  cause  of  Interna- 
tional Peace,  taking  an  active  part  in  all 
the  conferences  and  congresses  held  to  this 
end.  In  1911  he  made  a  tour  of  the  United 
States,  giving  over  a  hundred  addresses  on 
International  Peace.  It  was  in  this  tour 
that  he  had  the  experiences  related  in  this 
essay. 

Baron  D' Estournelles  de  Constant  is  the 
author  of  many  articles  in  magazines  and 
reviews,  both  in  French  and  English. 

13 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Among  his  larger  works  are  "  La  Politique 
Frar^aise  an  Tunisie,"  "  Les  debuts  d'Un 
Protectorat,"  "  Les  Congregations  Relig- 
ieuses  des  Arabes,"  "  Galathee,"  a  trans- 
lation from  the  Greek,  and  "  Pygmalion/' 
an  adaptation,  also  from  the  Greek. 

Of  late  years,  he  has  subordinated  all 
other  aspirations  to  his  endeavors  to  estab- 
lish and  maintain  the  peace  of  Europe. 
His  highest  honors  are  those  of  member- 
ship in  the  Hague  Court  and  in  the  two 
Hague  Conferences,  with  the  presidency 
of  the  Society  of  "Conciliation  Inter- 
nationale". He  has  succeeded  fairly  in 
convincing  France  that  the  wrong  involved 
in  the  seizure  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine  can- 
not be  made  right  by  force  of  arms.  The 
way  out  lies  in  the  recognition  of  the  com- 
mon interests  and  common  civilization  of 
Germany  and  France.  When  these  nations 

14 


FOREWORD 

cease  to  stand  opposed  to  each  other  as 
rival  military  powers,  ready  to  do  each 
other  any  injustice  the  force  of  arms  makes 
possible,  then  the  two  nations  will  emerge 
from  mediaevalism  into  real  civilization. 
The  time  must  come  when  these  nations 
will  be  not  powers,  but  states  or  jurisdic- 
tions simply,  as  are  the  states  of  our  republic. 
The  French  cantons  of  Alsace-Lorraine 
will  then  naturally  adhere  to  France,  the 
German  to  Germany,  but  there  will,  in 
either  case,  be  no  vital  interests  involved. 
The  prosperity  of  the  German  people  is  in 
no  way  involved  in  the  extension  of  her 
boundaries.  The  loss  of  these  provinces  in 
no  way  affects  the  prosperity  of  France. 
The  justice  and  order  which  men  find  on 
one  side  of  a  boundary  line  will  be  equally 
present  on  the  other.  Already  the  common 
interests  of  commerce  and  education  have 

15 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

made  the  world  very  small.  They  have 
obliterated  boundary  lines.  All  civilized 
states  are  part  of  the  "  Unseen  Empire  "  of 
Civilization.  There  can  be  no  national 
calamity  so  great  as  that  involved  in  modern 
war.  And  the  sickness,  moral  and  econ- 
omic, which  war  involves,  is  not  confined  to 
the  belligerent  nations.  It  spreads  through- 
out the  world  and  all  right-minded  men  are 
losers.  Only  the  armament  builders,  con- 
tractors, speculators,  and  ghouls  can  gain 
by  any  war. 

For  all  these  reasons  and  many  more 
which  have  been  eloquently  stated,  D'Es- 
tournelles  de  Constant  has  consistently  op- 
posed the  piling  up  of  useless  armament  in 
France,  for  the  imaginary  purpose  of  the 
1 '  Control  of  the  Mediterranean  ".  He  has 
likewise  opposed  the  concurrent  piling  up 
of  war  debt  which  has  already  reached,  in 

16 


FOREWORD 

France,  a  figure  ($6,000,000,000)  which 
calls  up  the  unpleasant  vision  of  national 
bankruptcy.  It  suggested  to  Gambetta  that 
the  final  end  of  armed  peace  in  France 
would  be  "a  beggar  crouching  by  a  bar- 
rack door  ".  One  of  the  baron's  constitu- 
ents in  Sarthe  has  told  this  story  in  a  local 
paper.  It  seems  that  years  ago  he  bought 
for  his  mantel-piece  a  clock,  very  large,  very 
showy,  far  too  large  for  the  mantel-piece, 
and  moreover  the  clock  would  not  go. 
Every  day  his  wife  congratulates  him  on 
his  purchase.  It  is  very  costly  and  very 
useless,  "  but  it  gives  us  the  '  grand  air '  ". 
In  the  same  way,  the  huge  and  costly,  and 
also  needless  fleet  of  the  Mediterranean 
gives  '  *  the  grand  air  ' '  to  France.  But  it 
will  not  go.  Its  engines  are  clogged  by  the 
load  of  debt. 

At  the  end  of  his  essay  the  baron  refers, 
17 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

a  bit  contemptuously,  to  the  "  Inevitable 
War"  between  the  United  States  and 
Japan.  This  war,  and  those  who  try  to 
materialize  it,  certainly  deserve  contempt. 
But  it  is  interesting  to  remember  that  the 
baron  was  in  America  just  at  a  critical  time, 
the  period  when  appropriations  for  Dread- 
noughts were  under  consideration  by  Con- 
gress. There  is  no  "  Inevitable  War"  in 
America,  at  any  other  time  of  the  year. 
"Japan"  of  the  dockyard  strategists  exists 
only  for  appropriations'  sake.  In  the  early 
spring,  and  then  only,  the  pasteboard  sol- 
diers of  the  Mikado  pop  out  from  their 
boxes.  There  are  36,000  of  these  puppets, 
ready  for  war  in  Hawaii;  75,000  at  Mag- 
dalena  Bay.  The  rest  are  on  the  island  of 
New  Caledonia  threatening,  from  a  thous- 
and miles  away,  the  British  Commonwealth 
of  Australia  and  the  Dominion  of  New 

18 


FOREWORD 

Zealand.  These  creatures  of  military  fancy 
have  to  be  worked  hard  with  scare  head- 
lines to  get  an  appropriation  of  a  million 
dollars  a  day.  But  it  can  be  done.  The 
great  journalists  struggle  on  undaunted. 
We  know  to  be  sure,  that  the  real  Japan  is 
busy  with  her  own  affairs  and  that  she  has 
her  hands  full  with  her  obligations  in  Asia, 
that  her  people  are  about  as  eager  for  another 
war  as  those  of  San  Francisco  for  another 
earthquake.  But  that  does  not  discourage 
these  intrepid  warriors  of  the  dockyard  and 
the  daily  journal.  The  Pacific  must  have 
at  least  one  bugaboo,  when  there  are  so 
many  on  the  Atlantic.  There  is  nothing 
available  except  Japan,  and  Japan  it  must 
be.  The  baron  has  recognized  all  this  and 
is  sure  that  there  will  be  no  war.  We  can 
go  farther.  Without  the  demand  for  appro- 
priations there  would  be  no  talk  of  war. 

19 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

The  women  of  the  world  in  their  un- 
questioning sacrificial  heroism  have  been 
through  all  history  the  greatest  sufferers 
from  war.  "  Only  a  woman  ",  says  Olive 
Schreiner,  "knows  what  a  man  costs". 
The  baron  has  made  more  than  once  a 
special  appeal  to  the  womanhood  of  the 
world,  to  use  their  influence  against  violence 
and  against  debt,  and  in  favor  of  orderly 
and  just  methods  of  meeting  foreign  na- 
tions. To  make  the  protests  of  women 
effective  in  public  affairs,  they  must  have 
the  ballot.  They  must  have  a  public  voice 
as  well  as  a  voice  at  home.  To  this  end, 
the  baron,  somewhat  unexpectedly  to  him- 
self, became  in  California  a  convert  to  the 
principle  of  Equal  Suffrage. 

The  influence  of  women  should  be  felt 
in  public  affairs  in  a  natural  way,  and  in 
accordance  with  orderly  statutes.  This  is 

20 


FOREWORD 

part  of  the  natural  movement  of  democracy, 
the  attitude  which  we  call  the  spirit  of  the 
west.  It  will  naturally  spread  from  the 
regions  where  life  is  most  abundant  to  re- 
gions where  traditions  are  more  definitely 
fixed.  Our  western  states  represent  the 
youth  of  democracy,  and  in  its  insurgency, 
the  great  movements  of  civilization  must 
begin.  " The  women  have  supported  me  ", 
the  baron  tells  us,  "I  support  them  in  my 
turn'*.  And  now  we  must  leave  him  to 
tell  his  own  story. 

DAVID  STARR  JORDAN. 
Stanford  'University,  May  10,  1912. 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

BY 

BARON  D'ESTOURNELLES  DE  CONSTANT 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

N  the  East  of  the  United  States 
the  problem  of  the  co-education 
of  the  sexes  is  beginning  to  be 
discussed ;  in  the  West  it  ap- 
pears to  be  clearly  settled  in  the  affirmative. 
At  Stanford  University,  at  Berkeley,  and 
later  at  Salt  Lake  City  and  in  Colorado,  as 
also  at  Seattle  and  Chicago,  I  saw  young 
people  from  eighteen  to  twenty  years  old, 
mingled  together,  forming  an  audience  very 
attentive  to  new  ideas.  At  the  University 
of  California,  of  which  Dr.  Benjamin  Ide 
Wheeler  is  President,  I  spent  an  afternoon 
and  evening  and  gave  one  of  my  principal 

25 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

lectures.  One  could  not  wish  for  a  more 
intelligent,  homogeneous,  or  alert  audience. 
At  Stanford,  where  I  spent  an  entire  day 
with  President  David  Starr  Jordan,  the 
students  invited  me  to  visit  their  houses  and 
dormitories.  They  have  the  choice  between 
two  very  different  kinds  of  life  ;  some  living 
in  groups  of  twenty  to  twenty-five,  in  houses 
where  they  are  their  own  masters,  under 
the  direction  of  one  of  their  number,  who 
has  been  elected  President  because  of  his 
fitness  and  merit.  They  work,  play  in  the 
open  air,  exercise  in  athletic  sports,  sleep 
out  of  doors  in  all  kinds  of  weather,  and, 
in  the  evening,  they  assemble  in  the  draw- 
ing room,  always  in  a  current  of  air,  play, 
sing  and  amuse  themselves.  Others  lead 
exactly  the  same  life  in  a  more  spacious 
building,  a  dormitory,  where  they  number 
several  hundred,  but  are  just  as  free. 

26 


D'ESTOURNELLES   DE   CONSTANT 

Likewise  the  young  women  have  their 
houses  with  their  gardens,  in  groups,  and 
also  their  independent  dormitory.  The 
houses  of  the  young  men  and  those  of  the 
young  women  are  adjoining,  intermingled, 
and  one  never  hears  of  a  scandal.  The 
young  girls  go  out  every  day,  even  in  the 
evening,  into  the  gardens,  the  street,  the 
playgrounds;  they  play,  ride  horseback, 
always  astride,  and  gallop  with  bare  heads, 
just  as  they  walk,  without  fearing  anything, 
either  the  air,  or  the  cold,  or  the  heat,  or 
the  gaze  of  the  passers-by. 

After  I  had  given  three  or  four  lectures 
and  had  taken  an  automobile  ride  in  the 
country  around  the  University,  the  young 
women  invited  me  to  dine  in  one  of  their 
lodges.  They  had  donned  evening  dress, 
light,  pink  or  white,  and  it  was  a  joy  to  see 
them  so  fresh,  with  their  blonde  or  dark 
27 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

hair,  their  blue  or  black  eyes,  smiling  and 
confiding. 

An  extraordinary  thing!  By  the  side  of 
the  two  Japanese  students  who  acted  as 
butlers  around  this  table  blooming  with 
youth,  a  tall  young  man,  very  gentle, 
very  simple,  an  American,  was  serving 
also.  He  was  a  student  serving  of  his 
own  free  will,  such  as  you  find  everywhere 
in  the  Universities  of  the  United  States, 
among  the  young  men  who  have  no  means 
to  defray  the  expenses  of  their  education. 
All  this  was  so  simply  and  naturally  done, 
that  one  would  have  been  a  brute  to  venture 
a  jest  in  this  company  by  asking  how  such 
a  paradox  was  possible.  During  the  dinner, 
from  time  to  time,  the  young  women  broke 
off  the  conversation,  at  an  imperceptible 
signal  from  one  of  their  number,  and  all 
together,  without  rising,  sang  a  chorus,  then 

28 


D'ESTOURNELLES  DE  CONSTANT 

another,  now  gay,  now  sentimental  or  witty, 
but  above  all  gay.  Then  they  stopped, 
chatted,  laughed,  and  sang  again.  This 
dinner  appeared  very  short  to  me. 

Afterwards  I  went  to  see  the  young  men 
who  were  waiting  for  me  to  the  number  of 
several  hundred,  and  I  spoke  to  them  stand- 
ing in  terrible  draughts  of  air:  their  good, 
fresh  faces  were  pleasant  to  see.  All  these 
young  people  were  not  thinking  of  evil. 
But  how  much  more  easily  they  can  be 
misled,  carried  away!  How  necessary  it  is 
that  they  should  be  put  on  their  guard,  as 
much  against  their  individual  errors  as 
against  those  of  the  government.  Such  is 
the  fear  that  I  have  often  expressed  on 
leaving  these  young  men  and  young  women 
abandoned,  so  to  speak,  to  their  instincts 
alone.  In  the  end,  however,  I  asked  my- 
self whether  this  education  is  not  the  surest 

29 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

of  safeguards  and  whether  the  use  of  liberty 
is  not  the  best  of  precautions  and  discipline. 
Our  French  young  people  would  be  wrong 
in  believing  that  the  American  education  is 
only  good  for  the  muscles  and  nerves,  and 
that,  in  all  other  respects,  it  forms  ingenu- 
ous beings,  incapable  of  getting  over  diffi- 
culties outside  of  their  own  country.  No, 
it  forms  men  and  women  who  are  every- 
where at  home.  Here  is  one  proof  of  that 
among  a  thousand.  Having  returned  to 
Paris,  I  was  leaving  my  house  one  day  to 
go  to  the  Senate.  It  was  the  day  before  the 
National  Fete,  the  13th  of  July.  I  was  late, 
as  usual,  when,  in  going  downstairs,  I  col- 
lided with  two  tall  young  men  in  gray  flannels 
and  so  manifestly  Americans  that  I  stopped 
at  the  same  time  they  did.  They  were 
two  Stanford  students  who  had  been  present 
at  my  lectures  and  who  were  coming  to  pay 

30 


D'ESTOURNELLES   DE   CONSTANT 

their  respects  to  me  in  passing  through  the 
city.  But  they  did  not  wish  to  inconveni- 
ence me.  They  were  traveling  very  simply, 
on  their  bicycles,  and  had  all  but  reached 
the  end  of  their  vacation.  Divided  between 
the  cares  that  were  awaiting  me  and  the 
sympathy  that  I  would  have  liked  to  show 
these  youths,  I  had  to  confine  myself  to 
scribbling  a  word  on  my  card  to  enable  them 
to  see  the  Review;  then  another  word  giv- 
ing them  my  address  in  Sarthe,  with  some 
brief  directions  in  regard  to  the  itinerary  to 
be  followed  in  order  to  make  the  journey 
there. 

Three  days  afterward  I  saw  them  arrive 
at  La  Fleche,  like  country  neighbors ;  and  I 
observed  that  they  did  not  speak  French; 
by  dint  of  amiability,  simplicity  and  a  good 
education  they  had  found  help  everywhere; 
more  than  that,  they  had  succeeded  in  pass- 
31 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

ing  through  the  crowd,  the  rows  of  police- 
men, and  in  securing,  without  tickets,  a 
very  good  seat  at  the  Review.  They  had 
seen  the  President  of  the  Republic  and  the 
Ministers;  had  been  present  at  the  distri- 
bution of  the  flags  and  decorations;  had 
thrilled  at  the  strains  of  the  Marseillaise  and 
the  Sambre-et-Meuse ;  had  cheered  the  air- 
ships; everybody  had  made  way  for  them; 
they  had  found  the  heart  of  France. 

As  soon  as  they  arrived  at  my  home,  they 
were  playing  tennis,  and  went  out  on  the 
river  in  a  canoe,  absolutely  as  they  did  in 
their  own  country,  to  the  great  joy  of  every- 
one, so  that  we  did  not  want  to  let  them  go. 
Moreover,  when  on  the  following  day  a 
popular  banquet  called  me  to  a  neighboring 
village,  they  accompanied  me  and,  still 
without  speaking  French,  by  the  radiance 
of  their  vitality  alone,  they  made  themselves 

32 


D'ESTOURNELLES   DE   CONSTANT 

so  popular  that  one  of  them  had  to  give  a 
toast,  which  I  translated,  to  the  two  sister 
Republics,  to  Washington  and  to  La  Fay- 
ette.  It  was  a  charming  day  for  all,  and 
one  which  enabled  one  to  prove  that  the 
products  of  American  civilization  bear  ex- 
portation with  advantage. 

I  will  say  as  much  concerning  a  young 
girl  from  Pittsburg,  who,  accompanying 
me  and  my  children  in  the  calls  that  I  had 
to  make  in  my  automobile  in  several  com- 
munes of  my  department,  and  speaking 
French,  it  is  true,  found  the  means,  by  her 
grace  and  simplicity,  of  pleasing  everybody, 
peasants  and  workmen  alike,  to  such  a  de- 
gree that  the  village  band  formed  a  circle 
around  her  in  order  to  play  a  serenade,  and 
asked  her,  as  a  souvenir,  for  copies  of  the 
photographs  that  she  had  taken  of  the  fete. 

It  is  true  that  the  young  Americans  who 
33 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

decide  to  travel  in  Europe  are  among  the 
most  sociable  of  men ;  they  are  even  begin- 
ning to  reproach  themselves  for  their  ignor- 
ance of  foreign  languages,  which  has  been 
natural  up  to  the  present  time;  they  can 
prove,  in  any  case,  that  their  independent 
education,  far  from  separating  them,  brings 
them  into  closer  touch  with  the  rest  of  the 
world ;  the  same  thing  may  be  said  of  many 
other  differences,  which,  at  a  superficial 
glance,  would  seem  to  be  so  many  causes 
of  incompatibility,  but  which  are,  on  the 
contrary,  connecting  links  or  sources  of 
mutual  influence  and  of  friendship  between 
the  new  world  and  the  old,  France  par- 
ticularly. 

People  will  raise  the  objection  that  I  am 
yielding  to  a  prejudice  in  favor  of  the 
Americans  in  pointing  out  the  enviable 
progress  that  has  been  realized  along  so 

34 


D'ESTOURNELLES   DE   CONSTANT 

many  lines  in  the  United  States;  the  truth 
is  that  I  learned  the  lesson  of  simplicity 
there.  Above  all,  in  the  West,  I  have 
seen  our  old  prejudices  fall  to  the  ground, 
and  natural  conceptions  take  their  revenge 
on  traditions  of  our  old  world  that  would 
have  no  sense  in  the  new.  Why  not  con- 
fess it?  In  traveling  over  the  world  I  have 
remodeled  my  own  education ;  I  have  not 
been  able  to  dispense  with  opening  my  eyes 
and  ears;  my  travels,  my  life  itself,  are  only 
a  long  road  to  Damascus.  I  have  literally 
been  taken  by  assault,  invaded  by  problems 
which  my  prudence  or  my  routine  relegated 
to  the  second  plane  of  my  preoccupations. 
I  struggled  in  vain.  What  could  I  do,  for 
example,  against  the  sudden  and  simultan- 
eous attack  of  all  the  women  of  California  ? 
I  suddenly  had  to  take  sides  for  or  against 
them  in  one  day's  time.  Who  would  have 
35 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

told  me  before  leaving  France,  that  I, ""a 
diplomat,  would  wage  a  campaign,  nay, 
more,  that  I  would  inaugurate  the  electoral 
campaign  of  the  women  of  San  Francisco 
for  the  franchise !  However,  that  is  what 
took  place.  I  did  not  surrender  without 
resistance ;  I  spoke  very  frankly ;  I  was  con- 
tradicted and  questioned  in  several  crowded 
meetings.  I  concealed  nothing  concerning 
the  battle  that  was  being  fought  between 
my  good  natural  feelings  and  those  which 
I  have  from  my  European  education.  This 
struggle  lasted  the  entire  week  that  I  spent 
in  California,  without  an  instant* s  respite; 
long  distance  telephones,  day  and  night 
telegrams,  messages,  letters,  calls,  nothing 
was  spared  to  induce  me  to  use  my 
influence. 

I  had  already  practically  pledged  myself 
and  they  knew  it.     In  many  of  the  cities 

36 


D'ESTOTRNELLES  DE  CONSTANT 

of  the  United  States,  the  newspapers  had 
translated  and  spread  abroad  a  lecture  that 
I  had  given  in  Paris  on  "Women  and 
Peace."  All  the  efforts  in  favor  of  the 
weak,  all  the  movements  for  emancipation, 
for  help,  for  social  amelioration  are  involved 
in  the  great  primordial  struggle  against 
violence.  You  cannot  promote  the  progress 
of  the  human  race  at  the  same  time  that 
you  are  seeking  for  its  enslavement  and 
destruction ;  all  that  is  connected ;  you  must 
be  for  or  against  force,  for  or  against  right; 
whether  you  wish  it  or  not,  every  supporter 
of  the  cause  of  women  is  a  pacificist,  and 
vice  versa ;  and  that  is  true  especially  in  the 
United  States,  in  new  countries.  There  a 
place  is  assigned  to  the  woman  and  the 
child,  and  the  newer  the  country,  the  higher 
the  place. 

The  condition  of  woman  has  been  bet- 
37 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

tered  with  the  march  of  civilization,  with 
the  march  of  the  sun ;  it  reaches,  therefore, 
its  maximum  of  progress  in  the  American 
Far- West,  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  Such  was, 
in  substance,  the  argument  which  had  pro- 
cured me  the  sympathy  of  many  people, 
and  the  reason  why  I  could  not  refuse  to 
support  San  Francisco;  but  I  perceived  at 
once  that  this  argument  was  too  moderate. 
"You  are  too  easy  to  satisfy,"  objected  the 
American  women ;  they  even  added,  *  *  We 
aren't  as  happy  as  you  maintain  we  are." 
To  this  direct  thrust  that  was  dealt  me  by 
the  president  of  one  of  the  numerous  meet- 
ings to  which  I  had  been  invited,  I  replied 
without  reserve,  happily  being  used  to  pub- 
lic assemblies,  "  You  have  a  right  to  protest 
from  your  point  of  view  as  suffragists;  but 
I  am  right  in  congratulating  you,  even 
against  your  will,  from  my  general  point  of 

38 


D'ESTOURNELLES   DE  CONSTANT 

view.  You  complain,  it  is  your  right,  but 
you  are  happy,  mesdames,  free,  privileged. 
I  am  extremely  sorry  to  have  told  you  in 
an  inopportune  moment,  that  you  are  super- 
latively happy,  compared  with  the  women 
of  other  countries.  Demand  progress,  well 
and  good,  in  order  that  these  other  women 
may  profit  by  it;  they  have  greater  need  of 
it  than  you  have."  I  spoke  of  my  experi- 
ences as  a  traveler,  of  the  life  of  the  women 
in  Eastern  and  Southern  Europe.  For  an 
instant  the  audience,  that,  in  all  countries, 
likes  to  be  opposed,  appeared  rebellious 
toward  my  argument.  I  had  called  for 
opposition ;  I  got  all  I  wanted.  One  of  the 
ladies  present  reminded  me  sharply  that  I 
doubtless  brought  prejudices  from  France, 
it  being  admitted  that  a  French  mother  has 
not  enough  confidence  in  her  daughter  to 
let  her  go  out  alone  in  Paris.  I  then 
39 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

answered  by  placing  myself  deliberately  on 
the  side  of  the  French  mothers,  and  by 
adding  that  no  mother,  no  sincere  friend 
of  American  young  women  would  allow 
them  to  go  out  alone  in  the  evening 
on  our  boulevards,  not  because  of  the 
bad  Frenchmen,  but  because  of  the  cos- 
mopolitan crowd  that  spends  its  money 
there. 

This  said,  I  drew  a  picture,  only  too 
exact,  of  the  exploitation  of  the  young 
woman  in  all  countries;  I  showed  her 
defencelessness  not  only  against  the  law, 
but  also  against  the  customs  that  must  be 
modified  before  everything  else.  Peace  was 
thus  made  between  my  audience  and  my- 
self, to  such  a  degree  that  an  old  workman 
who  did  not  know  me  except  by  the  title 
of  "Baron",  which  the  American  papers 
bestowed  upon  me  beyond  measure,  began 

40 


D'ESTOURNELLES   DE   CONSTANT 

to  cry,  "That's  right.  It's  pleasant  to  see 
a  human  aristocrat ! ' ' 

But,  when  the  ice  was  once  broken,  my 
embarrassment  only  changed  in  kind,  as 
the  discussion  changed  in  tone.  I  speak  of 
it  because  it  was  public  and  because  the 
papers  have  given  an  account  of  it.  One 
of  the  ladies  began  to  speak  and  said,  word 
for  word:  "  Don't  judge  us  by  appearances. 
The  French  woman  is  less  free  than  we 
are,  perhaps;  in  reality  she  is  happier." 

"Why?" 

"Because  she  is  more  highly  respected 
by  her  husband.  Our  husbands  and  fathers 
give  us  all  that  we  can  desire,  except  their 
confidence.  A  French  husband  treats  his 
wife  as  a  friend,  as  a  co-worker;  an  Ameri- 
can husband  keeps  her  apart  from  his  life. 

* '  You  doubtless  know  what  people  say 
here  of  a  French  household,  and  how  they 
41 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

distinguish  it  from  the  others.  *  The  Eng- 
lish husband  goes  ahead  of  his  wife,  the 
American  wife  goes  ahead  of  her  husband, 
the  French  man  and  wife  go  side  by  side.' ' 

To  discuss  such  problems  in  a  public 
meeting  was  new  and  embarrassing  for  me. 
I  confined  myself  to  saying  that  I  knew 
many  good,  many  admirable  American  fam- 
ilies, and  that  in  regard  to  the  others,  if 
confidence  is  lacking,  it  will  not  be  brought 
about  by  law.  This  confidence  must  be 
won.  In  order  to  make  myself  understood, 
I  found  nothing  better  than  to  describe  the 
home  of  a  French  family,  not  that  in  which 
the  wife  copies  her  neighbor,  who  copies, 
in  her  turn,  an  Englishwoman  who  copies 
a  fashion  book. 

Let  us  take  care  not  to  generalize.  There 
are  inharmonious  households  everywhere, 
in  France  as  in  America,  but  I  recognize 

42 


D'ESTOURNELLES  DE   CONSTANT 

the  fact  with  you,  mesdames,  that  the 
French  woman  does  not  complain,  does  not 
demand  the  right  of  voting,  and  that, 
therefore,  she  seems  more  satisfied  with  her 
lot  than  you  do.  A  French  household, 
such  as  you  find  especially  in  the  places  un- 
known to  travelers,  is  the  model,  the  ideal 
of  association  and  the  real  triumph  of  the 
woman,  for  it  is  her  work.  Only  it  is  a 
work  of  long  and  inherited  patience,  a  con- 
quest prepared  by  the  education,  the  docil- 
ity, the  sacrifice  of  the  wife  to  the  authority 
of  her  husband.  This  authority  remains 
intact, —  there  is  the  master  stroke, — but  it 
never  exists  without  control,  without  re- 
straint; the  wife  respects  it,  and  in  case  of 
need  strengthens  it,  but  without  ceasing  to 
watch  over  it  with  a  maternal  solicitude. 
How  many  times  have  I  stopped,  in  my 
native  country  of  Sarthe,  to  observe  one  of 
43 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

these  model  households,  in  a  little  town  or 
on  a  farm.  There,  truly,  the  woman  reigns, 
or  rather  the  man  reigns,  but  the  woman 
watches;  the  man  commands,  the  woman 
inspires.  She  effaces  herself  in  order  to 
devote  herself  to  the  humble  tasks  of  the 
home.  She  takes  upon  herself  the  con- 
stantly recurring  duties  which  one  does  not 
take  into  account,  but  which  are  indispen- 
sable in  every  day  life,  and  performs  them  all 
that  is  done  without  anyone's  observing  it, 
as  by  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The 
husband,  a  cattle-dealer,  for  instance,  gets 
into  his  wagon  before  daylight,  to  go  see 
the  farmers  or  make  his  purchases  at  one  of 
the  fairs  of  the  country.  Having  risen 
before  he  did,  his  wife  lights  the  fire  and 
noiselessly  prepares  a  meal;  she  goes  and 
wakes  up  the  stable  boy  or  pours  out  the 
grain  for  the  horse  herself.  She  brushes 
44 


D'ESTOURNELLES   DE   CONSTANT 

her  husband's  clothes  and  shoes,  and  in 
case  of  need  helps  him  hitch  up.  He's  off; 
she  puts  the  room  in  order,  the  kitchen, 
the  house,  looks  after  the  yard,  the  chicken 
roost,  the  barn,  the  stable.  She  dresses  the 
children,  gives  them  their  breakfast,  sends 
them  off  to  school;  she  mends  the  linen, 
washes  and  irons,  all  the  while  talking,  for 
she  is  not  ill-tempered,  and  her  husband 
will  not  be  put  out  to  learn  what  has  taken 
place  in  the  village,  when  he  comes  back. 
Between  whiles  she  kills  a  chicken  and  a 
duck,  plucks  them,  prepares  them  for  the 
coming  Sunday;  she  kneads  the  bread,  heats 
the  oven,  makes  a  cake  or  gives  her  order 
to  the  baker;  she  makes  her  purchases  at 
the  grocery  and  butcher  shop ;  she  does  not 
forget  the  cellar  either;  it  is  she  who  will 
go  down  to  hunt  behind  the  faggots  for  the 
good  bottle  of  white  wine  which  her  master 
45 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

wishes  to  offer  to  the  customer  or  the  friend 
who  comes  back  with  him.  It  is  she  who 
receives  us,  clean  and  at  ease,  a  smile  on 
her  lips,  and  who  gives  us  a  hearty  welcome 
when  I  arrive  with  my  friends.  Without 
seeming  to  do  so,  she  forgets  nothing.  It 
is  she,  also,  who  keeps  the  accounts,  and 
the  most  striking  thing  about  it  is  that  while 
I  know  some  women  who  scarcely  know 
how  to  read,  they  do  not  make  the  mistake 
of  a  centime  in  the  calculation  of  what  they 
ought  to  receive  from  Peter,  pay  to  Paul, 
advance  to  Louis,  withhold  from  Charles, 
etc.,  etc. 

Often  the  husband,  coming  home  from 
the  market,  is  rather  out  of  sorts,  and  nat- 
urally his  bad  humor  falls  upon  the  mistress. 
"It's  your  fault,  you  have  forgotten  this, 
you  had  told  me  that,  you  had  given  me  a 
wrong  impression ! " 

46 


D'ESTOURNELLES  DE   CONSTANT 

The  wife  replies  in  her  own  way,  and 
according  to  her  lights.  If  there  are  wit- 
nesses, she  is  silent;  she  knows  how  to 
wait,  she  is  politic;  like  Louis  XI  she  dis- 
sembles; or  perhaps  she  jokes,  she  takes 
nothing  in  a  tragic  way;  she  has  seen  many 
other  similar  occasions,  and  her  mother  too ; 
and  her  grandmother,  likewise.  She  bursts 
out  laughing,  or  else  she  furtively  wipes 
away  a  tear;  that  depends  en  her  tempera- 
ment and  the  circumstances.  Now  and 
then  her  husband  has  had  difficulty  in  per- 
suading a  customer;  he  has  had  to  drink  a 
glass  of  wine,  two  glasses  of  wine,  a  glass 
too  much;  she  takes  in  the  situation  at  the 
first  glance  and  says  nothing;  she  has  pa- 
tience until  the  next  day  ...  or  else, 
if  she  is  alone,  she  gets  cross,  and  you  don't 
know  what  may  happen. 

Whatever  happens,  the  next  day  she  is 
47 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

mistress  of  her  own  house,  as  on  the  day 
before,  and  her  husband,  grumbling  all  the 
while,  secretly  does  her  justice;  she  is  his 
adviser,  his  friend,  half  of  himself,  his 
better  half.  Would  you  try  then  to  replace 
this  conjugal  authority  of  the  French  wo- 
man by  a  political  right?  Are  you  sur- 
prised that  she  doesn't  claim  anything  from 
the  law?  Besides,  the  right  to  vote  is  never 
claimed  so  much  by  the  happy  people  in 
the  world  as  by  the  others.  It  is  demanded 
for  the  latter,  and  for  that  reason  it  is  sacred. 
Oppose  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  happy  wife, 
the  suffering  of  all  the  miserable  women 
reduced  to  the  state  of  slaves,  then  the  point 
of  view  is  changed,  and  that  is  why  I  never 
have  said  a  word  to  discourage  the  American 
women  who  are  pleading  the  cause  of  their 
fellow  creatures. 

My  friends  of  the  English  Liberal  party 
48 


D'ESTOURNELLES   DE   CONSTANT 

have  committed  a  great  mistake,  in  my 
opinion,  in  combating  the  suffragettes, what- 
ever were  the  violences  against  which  they 
have  often  been  obliged  to  protect  them- 
selves. By  an  inexplicable  reactionary  policy 
against  the  traditions  of  English  public  life, 
they  have  denied  the  women  the  right  of 
discussing  their  demands;  they  have  treated 
these  claims  with  disdain.  By  according 
them  only  a  portion  of  the  consideration 
that  all  parties,  in  all  countries,  lavish  upon 
the  least  respectable  of  electoral  groups,  they 
would  have  had  the  opportunity  to  play  the 
leading  role  in  this  movement,  they  would 
not  have  come  to  this  monstrosity,  in  Eng- 
land !  of  classing  women  in  a  sort  of  inferior 
category  of  humanity. 

In  the  United  States,  no  party  has  com- 
mitted the  mistake  of  the  English  Liberals. 
President  Roosevelt,  himself,  a  partisan  of 
49 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

the  strongest  kind,  has  not  declared  himself 
against  the  cause  of  woman;  he  has  been 
reserved,  perhaps  too  much  so,  intrenching 
himself  as  "  lukewarm. "  Ardent  or  luke- 
warm, it  doesn't  make  much  difference,  the 
sympathy  of  the  public  authorities  cannot 
long  be  concealed  in  the  face  of  the  ques- 
tion of  woman's  suffrage,  which  forms  an 
integral  part  of  the  great  social,  national 
and  universal  problem. 

This  question  has  been  put  in  the  United 
States;  it  is  being  settled  bit  by  bit,  by 
partial  victories  which  will  finally  form  a 
whole.  I  had  already  a  feeling  of  sympathy 
with  it  in  consequence  of  my  first  trip  to 
America,  and  felt  much  more  strongly  on 
the  subject  after  my  visit  in  the  Scandinavian 
countries  where  ideas  arise  sooner  than  else- 
where ;  but  I  now  am  convinced  of  it.  My 
San  Francisco  experiences  were  only  the 

50 


D'ESTOURNELLES   DE   CONSTANT 

prelude  to  the  initiation  which  awaited  me 
afterwards,  from  state  to  state,  where  I  was 
able  to  judge  first  the  effort,  then  the  work, 
of  woman  in  the  United  States.  Not  that 
the  American  woman  is  superior  to  other 
women,  but  she  has  more  freedom ;  she  is 
courageous  like  others,  but  courageous  pub- 
licly, in  order  to  serve  her  cause,  while  the 
European  woman,  more  resigned,  is  brave 
only  to  endure. 

People  laugh  at  the  woman  who  demands 
the  right  to  vote;  they  ridicule  her,  exactly 
as  they  have  ridiculed  all  the  defenders  of 
the  noblest  causes,  all  the  precursors,  all  the 
inventors,  all  the  pioneers ;  but  they  finally 
respect  her  all  the  more  because  they  are 
ashamed  of  having  made  fun  of  her.  I 
have  heard  the  most  futile  women  of  the 
world  admire,  in  spite  of  their  sphere,  the 
beauty  of  an  immense  procession  which 
51 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

they  had  seen  pass  like  a  vision  beneath 
their  windows,  in  New  York.  It  was  a 
manifestation  in  favor  of  woman's  rights 
on  a  winter's  day,  in  the  mud,  in  the  water. 
Thousands  and  thousands  and  thousands  of 
women  of  all  classes,  of  all  ages,  of  all 
kinds,  were  following  one  another,  march- 
ing together  indistinguishably,  forgetting 
their  duties,  their  inequalities,  their  joys, 
their  miseries,  in  order  to  aim  only  at  a 
common  end,  to  seek  only  for  the  emanci- 
pation of  their  sex,  the  right  of  acting, 
struggling,  protesting  and  voting  in  the 
state  as  in  the  home.  Tears  rose  in  the 
eyes  of  those  women  who  spoke  to  me  thus, 
and  whose  souls  had  perhaps  awakened  that 
day;  and  they  wondered  at  the  courage  the 
good  women  must  have  had  whom  they 
had  recognized  at  the  head  of  this  crowd ; 
these  women  who  exposed  themselves  not 

52 


D'ESTOURNELLES   DE   CONSTANT 

only  to  the  low  jokes  of  the  passers-by,  but 
also  to  close  contact  with  the  worst  unfor- 
tunates, and  to  association  with  half-crazy 
women  who  by  their  extravagance  compro- 
mise the  best  of  causes.  I  spoke  with 
mothers,  with  women  whose  families  I 
know  are  living  in  harmony,  highly  es- 
teemed. I  told  them  my  doubts,  my  fears, 
my  prejudices.  They  listened  to  me  with- 
out surprise,  and  replied:  "We  will  tri- 
umph, because  we  deserve  to  triumph.  You 
were  present  at  the  campaign  for  equal  suf- 
frage in  California ;  that  is  only  a  final  stage 
of  the  struggle.  We  have  succeeded  in 
many  very  important  preliminary  attacks. 
For  example,  in  the  State  of  Kansas  the 
women  take  part  in  all  the  municipal  elec- 
tions, as  electors  and  as  those  eligible  to 
office,  and  everybody,  beginning  with  the 
tax-payers,  is  rejoicing  over  this  moral  pro- 

53 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

gress.  Many  women  are  at  the  head  of 
municipalities;  many  of  their  number  are 
at  the  same  time  excellent  mothers  and  ex- 
cellent mayors. 

"In  almost  half  of  the  United  States  we 
have  won  the  right  to  vote  in  educational 
matters,  that  is  to  say,  the  mothers  as  well 
as  the  fathers  elect  the  school  officers,  the 
members  of  library  boards,  etc.,  etc.,  and 
no  one  complains;  quite  the  contrary,  in 
certain  states  you  will  see  a  woman  elected 
to  fill  the  office  of  Superintendent  of  Schools, 
and  even  a  young  woman.  We  have  now 
the  right  to  vote  in  matters  of  taxation,  for 
or  against  certain  expenses,  for  or  against 
certain  public  works,  so  that  the  expenses 
incurred  serve  a  real  purpose  and  are  not 
merely  for  the  benefit  of  the  contractors 
and  their  friends  alone. 

"Moreover,  one  must  not  rate  the  pro- 
54 


D'ESTOURNELLES   DE   CONSTANT 

gress  of  our  cause  only  by  these  results, 
however  brilliant  they  may  be.  One  must 
see  our  means  of  action,  our  resources,  our 
numbers,  our  organization,  the  superior 
men  and  women  who  support  and  direct 
us;  one  must  also  be  acquainted  with  our 
history.  It  was  not  yesterday  that  we  pro- 
tested against  the  narrow  interpretation  of 
your  Declaration  of  the  Rights  of  Man,  and 
that  we  wished  it  to  be  applied,  not  accord- 
ing to  the  letter,  but  in  its  wholly  human 
spirit,  both  to  the  woman  and  to  the  child. 
It  was  by  the  emancipation  of  the  negroes 
that  we  tried  out  our  forces.  Our  success 
brought  to  light  the  inadmissible  paradox 
of  our  legal  inferiority.  Our  assistance  had 
been  accepted,  but,  when  the  war  was  fin- 
isned,  the  right  of  voting  was  refused  us. 
The  slaves  had  been  freed,  but  not  the 
women ;  we  were  relegated  to  the  ranks  of 
55 


criminals  and  lunatics;  we  were  obliged  to 
carry  about  everywhere  these  placards  that 
you  have  seen,  *  Criminals,  lunatics  and 
women  do  not  vote.' 

"We  have  succeeded  admirably  in  mun- 
icipal affairs  (and  I  do  not  speak  of  the 
active  part  women  play  in  commercial  and 
agricultural  organizations);  why  and  by 
what  right  should  we  stop  there? 

* '  If  you  admit  that  it  is  to  the  interest  of 
all  the  citizens  of  a  city,  both  men  and 
women,  to  unite  to  prevent,  for  example, 
the  adulteration  of  milk  and  sugar,  the 
foods  that  nourish  our  children,  how  can 
you  prevent  us,  when  we  are  once  organ- 
ized as  we  shall  soon  be,  from  uniting  to 
prevent  the  moral  debasement  of  education, 
of  national  honor?  How  prevent  us  from 
uniting  to  struggle  against  the  lies,  the 
abuses,  the  corruptions  that  men  support  or 

56 


D'ESTOURNELLES   DE   CONSTANT 

encourage  because  they  are  afraid  to  lay 
them  bare?  We  are  the  majority,  we  are 
a  force  that  has  been  used  many  times;  it 
is  not  enough  for  us  to  exercise  an  influence, 
we  want  to  exercise  our  power  in  action,  in 
direct  action. 

"We  have  let  things  go  on  too  long, 
through  timidity,  convinced  of  our  incapa- 
city and  of  your  pretended  superiority  in 
the  entire  domain  of  public  action;  now 
we  are  awakened  from  this  over-long  dream. 
Without  pride  and  without  ambition,  by 
the  reality  of  facts,  in  the  interest  even  of 
man,  it  is  time  to  take  from  him  an  exclus- 
ive direction  of  affairs  as  bad  for  him  as  for 
us  and  for  civilization. 

"The   best   men    are    in    reality   more 

timid  than  the  women.     They  are  afraid 

of    the   yellow    press,    afraid    of    scandal, 

afraid  of   extortion,  afraid  of   new  things, 

57 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

afraid  of  truth;  and,  finally,  their  weakness 
assures  the  predominance  of  the  worst  ele- 
ments. This  trio,  the  press,  the  politicians 
and  the  business  men,  without  us,  will  end 
by  dominating  honest  people.  Under  the 
pretext  of  not  wanting  to  leave  our  firesides, 
we  would  finally  abandon  them  to  those 
who  will  destroy  them.  Never!  it  is  for 
love  of  our  homes,  of  our  children,  of  our 
families,  of  our  country,  of  liberty,  in  short, 
and  of  justice,  that  we  have  entered  the 
campaign,  and  we  shall  win. 

"Now  that's  what  you  ought  to  under- 
stand. We  cannot  be  victorious  in  any 
other  way  than  by  winning  the  right  to 
vote.  Once  mistresses  of  the  elections,  we 
shall  force  the  men  to  do  for  the  nation  as 
for  the  city  what  they  are  not  doing  now. 

"As  to  our  homes,  once  more,  don't 
worry;  they  will  be  the  better  guarded  be- 

58 


D'ESTOURNELLES   DE   CONSTANT 

cause  we  are  protecting  them  both  inside 
and  out.  By  dint  of  remaining  there  de- 
fenceless, so  many  things  have  been  taken 
from  us  that  we  must  go  out  of  the  home 
to  get  them  back.  Our  duty  as  wives  and 
mothers  is  menaced  if  it  has  not  as  its  sanc- 
tion a  duty  of  control,  and  this  duty  of 
control  is  nothing  without  our  right  of 
intervention." 

To  sum  up,  this  movement  in  favor  of 
woman's  suffrage  is  a  protest  of  weariness 
and  morality  against  the  masculine  encroach- 
ments of  politics  on  private  life,  conscience 
and  individual  liberty.  Sometimes  negative, 
this  protest  is  exercised  with  unbelievable 
violence  against  alcoholism,  for  instance,  as 
we  shall  see  later;  sometimes  positive,  in 
favor  of  public  health,  public  parks,  the 
games  and  education  of  children,  the  regu- 
lation of  work,  the  protection  of  childhood. 
59 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

It  is  no  longer  possible  today  to  treat  it  with 
scorn.  Governments  ought  to  take  notice 
of  it,  even  in  Europe.  I  most  assuredly  did 
not  expect  to  assist  in  the  campaign  of  the 
ladies  of  San  Francisco.  I  joyfully  take  my 
share  of  responsibility  in  their  triumph ;  for 
you  know  that  they  have  finally  won  the 
day.  Today  they  have  the  right  to  vote 
and  the  right  of  being  elected  to  office  in 
the  next  legislative  elections  of  the  State  of 
California.  There  are  six  states  whose  con- 
stitutions, amended  by  popular  vote,  allow 
women  to  vote.  The  State  of  Washington, 
by  an  unexpected  stroke,  had  been  dipos- 
sessed  of  this  new  right,  but  it  was  not  long 
in  regaining  it.  The  six  states  having  wo- 
man's suffrage  are,  together  with  California, 
Utah,  Wyoming,  Idaho,  Colorado  and 
Washington.  The  five  last-named  being 
among  the  least  populous  of  the  United 

60 


D'ESTOURNELLES  DE   CONSTANT 

States,  the  accession  of  California,  whose 
population  alone  (2,400,000)  is  nearly  equal 
to  that  of  the  other  five  together  (2,900,000) 
constitutes  a  result  whose  consequences  are 
but  half  perceived. 

Another  striking  statement.  The  cities 
* '  where  people  amuse  themselves ' ' ,  as  you 
know,  and  particularly  the  great  sea-ports, 
are  naturally  hostile  to  every  reform  tending 
to  protect  woman.  The  patrons  of  the 
bars,  saloons  and  houses  of  ill-fame  do  not 
fall  into  these  dreams.  San  Francisco, 
therefore,  voted  against  the  women  accord- 
ing to  the  rule,  to  such  an  extent  that,  on 
the  evening  of  the  election,  after  the  first 
returns,  their  defeat  appeared  to  be  crush- 
ing, and  was  telegraphed  in  advance  all 
over  the  country.  The  next  day  the  news- 
papers made  ironical  comments  upon  it. 
But  the  second  day  after  the  election  the 
61 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

returns  from  the  rural  precincts  corrected 
the  votes  of  the  metropolis,  and  defeat  was 
changed  into  victory.  There  is  a  lesson 
that  will  not  be  lost.  The  masses  in  which 
the  woman  is  submerged  are  against  her 
rising;  the  country,  where  she  is  mistress 
of  the  farm  or  the  home,  is  for  her. 

I  have  faithfully  disclosed  my  unexpected 
participation  in  this  great  movement.  Have 
I  deviated  from  my  program?  No,  assur- 
edly not;  I  have  enlarged  it.  I  have  found 
new  contests  on  my  pathway,  and  I  have 
not  neglected  them.  All  these  protests 
have  their  weight;  all  these  good  wishes 
finally  form  a  powerful  combination  of 
united  interests  which  the  force  of  cir- 
cumstances will  bind  together.  Modern 
governments  first  denied  and  afterwards 
braved  the  force  of  public  opinion;  today 
they  are  deciding  to  recognize  it,  as  soon  as 

62 


D  ESTOURNELLES  DE   CONSTANT 

this  awakened  opinion  can  make  itself  un- 
derstood. Let  them  take  care.  They  have 
amassed  against  them,  under  the  regime  of 
armed  peace,  infinite  protests,  protests  from 
the  laboring  masses,  and  from  a  great  part 
of  the  commercial  world.  If  they  add  to 
them  those  of  the  women  to  boot,  that  will 
excite  too  much  unpopularity. 

The  women  have  supported  me,  I  sup- 
port them  in  my  turn.  Being  the  weaker, 
they  are  still  more  interested  than  the  men 
in  the  maintenance  of  peace,  and  in  the 
organization  of  justice.  Wherever  the 
fishers  in  troubled  waters  work  to  foment 
war  or  panic,  the  influence  of  the  women 
may  be  depended  upon  to  counterbalance 
them.  That  struck  me  especially  in  San 
Francisco,  where  the  admirable  progress  of 
this  rich  country  is  too  often  in  danger  of 
being  compromised  by  the  enterprise  of  a 
63 


WOMAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

few  adventurers,  and  especially  by  the  men- 
ace of  the  so-called,  "Inevitable  War," 
between  the  United  States  and  Japan. 


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